Last updated 12:07, Saturday, 05 April 2008

THE two people who replied to my attack on the Uppies and Downies, both of them authorities on the game but in different ways, disagree on one point.

While Bob Daglish is outraged at my suggestion that some players use it as an opportunity to settle old scores and challenges me to name names, Jeremy Godwin writes: “Settling of old scores is a West Cumberland trait in this and other games, such as ordinary football”.

I apologise for my ignorance of the nitty-gritty of the game, but whether the ball was kicked or thrown through the window would have made no difference to the shock and distress suffered by the householder when the players burst in and fought for it in her living room.

If the Uppies and Downies was confined to the Cloffocks, it would not present such a great problem.

However, the object of the game is for the Uppies to get the ball to the gates of Workington Hall and the Downies to Workington’s lighthouse.

As these are considerable distances from the Cloffocks players might be fighting for possession on roads, streets and railway; among vehicles, houses and shops; in steam, river and dock.

A small police presence at the Uppies and Downies means there is nothing to prevent a player from carrying the ball into Workington’s new £60 million town centre, where enormous damage could be done by dozens of players fighting for it.

The problem of how the game can continue alongside the new Tesco Extra store when it opens on the Cloffocks has yet to be resolved.

As long as the Uppies and Downies is allowed to be played without proper rules and constraints it will present a danger to persons and property.

The police and the local authority have a duty to protect the public from this.

ROBERT COON

Cypress Way

Penrith